SAN DIEGO – Under questioning from prosecutor George "Woody" Clarke, Danielle's former teacher, Amy Destefani, recalled the child in her kindergarten and first-grade classes at Morning Creek and Creekside Elementary schools in Sabre Springs.
"Danielle was a very sweet, polite hard-working little girl," Destefani said. "She really enjoyed school, doing her best and learning new things."
The former teacher, who left the education field after the birth of her second child last year, recalled that Danille enjoyed writing."
"If she was working on something that included writing, she often stayed even through recess, because she enjoyed it so much."
The girl was careful to include others during playtimes, according to the teacher, in order to make sure "nobody else had their feelings hurt."
The girl was very proud that her mother, Brenda van Dam, was a regular classroom volunteer.
A second teacher, Ruby Puntenney, who taught the victim during second grade at Creekside, enjoyed reading and math, and "got along with all children."
She spoke of one writing project that the victim began, but never finished. Students were asked to write about their favorite memories, and she learned Danielle planned to write about when her grandmother's home was broken into.
Puntenney testified she asked the victim why she chose to write about something so sad, the girl replied: "But it's true."
The paper was never completed after the child disappeared.
The teacher heard about the girl's disappearance the Saturday afternoon after she was reported missing. Danielle's fellow students came to school the following Monday talking about her disappearance and speaking of searches by police dogs and helicopters in the neighborhood.
A crisis response team instructed Puntenney to tell the children that it was fortunate the police were searching for her.
The day after her body was found, the students asked the teacher what would be done with the girl's desk, which had been left in position, as counseled by the school's crisis response team.
The students first suggested her school supplies be given to the poor, but the teacher suggested collecting the items for the girl's parents, turning them in to the office. The room was rearranged, with numbers chosen at random from the students' mailboxes, Puntenney said.
"The students for some reason wanted to have a totally different seating arrangement than before," she said.
"What do you recall most about Danielle," Clarke asked.
"Ever since Danielle disappeared there has not been a day that passed that that I had not thought of her," she said. "She was a young student but a very delight student. She cooperated, she was friendly with other kids, she wanted to learn more. She listened to instruction."
Once, when her mother was late bringing lunch to school, the teacher asked the girl if she wanted something from the school. Danielle declined, according to Puntenney, because her mother promised she would bring it.
Brenda ultimately arrived with lunch.
"She was very obedient," Puntenney said.
"Do other kids miss her," Clarke said of the school's third-graders, who are just beginning school this week.
"Yes," she said. "We all do."
Feldman declined to cross-examine both witnesses.
